Yin-Yang
by foxeye10
Summary: Before they were enemies, who were they? The tale of the Doctor and the Master, and the journey they made from children on Gallifrey to the battlefield of Earth.


Warning: This story will include mild m/m (rating may change depending on which direction the plot bunnies drag me with their vicious gnawing teeth)

* * *

_"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light"_  
-Helen Keller-

Once upon a time there was a world. It shone across the universe, a beacon of light within the darkness, and its people were good and wise and kind. And on this world there were born two children, one destined for evil and the other for good. the hero and the villain, whose story would burn across the stars.

Life is easier in a fairy tale. Good is good and bad is bad. A world where black and white must never give birth to any bastard grey of confusion, where you know the prince is good because he is handsome, and princesses can be judged purely by the delicacy of their skin (and their wont to complain about sleeping conditions).

But, I am afraid to say, this is no fairy tale. This is a story of power and greed, of fury and kindness, of love and hate. This is the story of children, and the men they grow to become. Look not here for good or evil, but see only right and wrong, and the myriad ways they blend and entwine.

Perhaps, however, we did begin our tale correctly. For this is essentially a story of time, and the people who would call themselves its Lords.

Once upon a time - but alas no more - there stood the world of Gallifrey. How beautiful it was then, from its mountain peaks topped with snow, to the whispering golden fields, seeming endless in the still light of an ancient world. The trees with leaves of silver, glinting in forests that held back the burning desert. Warmed by the light of two suns, which would seem to set the world on fire as they rose.

Look a little closer now, and you see the great Citadel, protected from the harsh and beautiful wilderness by a dome of purest crystal, the formula of which is now lost to civilisation. Within these soaring towers and swooping arches lived the Time Lords. Knowledge, pure and distilled taught in its universities, its peoples fighting not with base weapons of the hand, but the infinitely sharper ones of the mind.

Here are its libraries packed with dusty tomes belonging to worlds across the universe. Here the great state rooms, where matters of politics can be discussed for weeks at a time. Here, a world of such power, yet tied down to the past by its laws and ordinances. And here we shall find the ones who will eventually break this world apart forever.

Now draw your mind's eye to the base of one of the outer towers, where two young boys sit, sizing each other up. One is skinny, his dark hair cut short enough to reveal the outline of his skull. His mouth turns down in a sullen frown, and his eyes constantly wander out of the window, yearning for the home he has so recently left.

The boy opposite him is a little taller, built solidly. His eyes are keen and intelligent, seeming to stare right through his companion from below a head of hair only a few shades darker than his robes of red.

"Are you scared?"

The dark boy speaks first, voice trembling on the doorstep of tears. THe other boy regards him for a moment, eyes kind.

"Yes. I bet everyone is."

The silence holds for a while.

"They call me Koschei."

"I'm Theta."

They smile tentatively at one another, then gently the boy who called himself Koschei reached for the dark boy's hand.

As the light from the two setting suns dims, they sit in their room, talking. Theta tells of his family, and under the trusting gaze of his new-found friend even admits the human blood in his ancestry. At his embarrassment Koschei only laughs and teases. Then he talks with longing of his home, the estate with its fields of red grass.

Eventually the light fades totally. Theta gazes into the darkness, with only the whites of Koschei's eyes visible.

He speaks, and for the first time Theta hears uncertainty in his young voice, "They say the Untempered Schism is a crack in time. That when you see it you see the whole of time itself. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be. It's too much Theta, I don't know how I'm going to stand it!"

"But you said yourself, everyone d-"

"For Rassilon's sake! I don't care what everyone says! They say that some people go insane, and I don't want that! I have a feeling, a really bad feeling..."

Theta saw the eyes close and remain so. Lost for words he scrambles for something, anything that will help. "Maybe... maybe it's not so bad? Maybe they just say that to scare us? And after tomorrow we have the rest of our lives. We'll be initiates in the Academy, and you can take me to see the Mountains of Perdition, and together we can do things! Amazing things!"

"Perhaps. I'm sorry - I just can't shake this feeling..."

"Ignore it! Think of our future, together we can change the universe!"

Koschei gives a tut, "Time Lords are bound to obey the Laws of Time, to not interfere, to only watch. As a species in a position of power, we must ensure that we do not interfere with the time-lines of younger species".

"You sound like my mother!" Theta protested.

"It's the law we live by, you know as well as I."

Theta sneered, although aware that the other boy could not see him in the darkness. "A boring law at that. I liked you better all mopey."

"Oh, you did, did you?". Without a warning the ginger boy leaped from his seat, knocking his companion down in a tangle of arms, legs and robes. They rolled on the floor for a time, bickering and giggling as boys do (regardless of species or rank).

Night turns into day and time moves on, even for Time Lords. How I wish I could finish the story here, with a classic fairy tale ending - And they all lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, dear reader, that would be amiss of me, for as you have probably deduced, with the rising of the first sun would come a change, one from which neither child would ever fully recover.

For the friendly fight that began that night would echo on throughout the millenia. It will turn brutal, and at its touch worlds will shatter and civilisations will crumble. Friends will be lost, and lovers decimated. The universe will tremble as they battle on, past death, past all impossibilities, ever onwards.

* * *

Brand new story which I'm actually trying to wrap my head around as I write, so any suggestions for things you want to see in the story, or any constructive criticism is gladly accepted!


End file.
